


Fallen King Beneath Us

by Rezia (FrostedStars)



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Major AU adopted from another user, PK is not so PK anymore, Umm... Other tags to be added?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-16 01:35:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28823070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrostedStars/pseuds/Rezia
Summary: Deep within the abyss, the fallen king of pale rests. Just how did it end this way? Better yet, what's to come?The king is sealed.The void yearns.The palace is gone and the kingdom is renewed.In a tucked away grotto, an archivist organizes.What a story to tell...--------cover art by Dil on the Hollow Knight ™ Aminostory adopted from Notorious_Naga on AO3Continuation By EclipsedSkies
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	1. Stirring(Original by Notorious_Naga)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Fallen King, Beneath Us](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18002618) by [Mono (Notorious_Naga)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Notorious_Naga/pseuds/Mono), [Notorious_Naga](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Notorious_Naga/pseuds/Notorious_Naga). 



> So, as you could probably tell by the credit everywhere, this isn't my AU originally. I had been given the opportunity to continue this from one of the creators. Now, I won't post chapters for this too often as the first two are by the og creators and my own chapters tend to take more time. So I'll post every other week or so once I post chapter 3 so I have the time to finish them. And even though I set this as a "remix" with the link to the OG, I will still plaster credit for it in chapter titles.

Darkness. Endless, all-consuming, blank and... horribly unchanging darkness. Whispers of taunts echo in the nothingness, but they are tuned out by the monotony of themselves. The abyss lulls him in this cage, not of his making but his cage all the same.

He has run through this endless cycle a thousand times a thousand days— and then some. Nothing changes, this much is certain. It is as it should be, and he rests knowing that if he wakes it could be worse than this tormented slumber.

A light. It falls through a crack unseen and lands without noise. But it is light, and that unsettles the void enough to wake him. He stirs, and all at once his attention is drawn to that minuscule little object, floating on the sea of Void he rests on, not yet consumed.

It shines with a silent sort of determination like it meant to fall where it lay, and for an instant he almost recognizes it— how long had it been since he'd seen an idol of himself?

And then, the mind that is not his own rears to the front and the idol is gone and the light is stolen back into the depths. Now, it is back to that all-consuming darkness, but yet. Something is amiss.

He is awake now, he realizes. He is not in that half-tormented slumber of whispers and nothing more. The wyrm of soul and void is awake, and... nothing is wrong, yet. The rush to consume fades with the light taken in, and now it is calm despite its endless whispering taunts.

The entrance.

Far above, marked by a darkened twist of an iron platform, a crack shows in a sealed door. It does not shed light, no, but makes a noise that leads him to move up, up, on broken stone and spikes that do not phase him. In a rush of Void, his bleary eyes behold the first glance of outside for the first time in... an age.

Just who cracked open that sealed door? Who dropped that bright idol? Who knows of him...?


	2. Waiting(original Chapter By Notorious_Naga)

The entrance is cracked open.

A glimpse of the outside, small as it is, is enough. After countless days in this sleep, he is awake, aware, and he sees something other than the drowning black that holds him outside this cracked entrance. How the seal has broken, after all these years, is a mystery that does not occur to him.

He watches the entrance, for a time, waiting. For what, he does not know, but some part of him thinks that someone, not something, must be the reason.

That reason does not come. Instead, curiosity surfaces as he does, out of the void, and brings him forward. The crack is barely large enough for anything of size— let alone himself— to fit. However, he is as versatile as the beast that consumed him all those years ago. He does not immediately want to go through; he barely was himself. He did not want to leave the abyss he had trapped himself in for the same reason he had put himself in it.

What if the void used this- used him- to get free? What if it took the chance to wreak the havoc he had so decidedly stopped? What if, what if, what if—

The endless possibilities torment him worse than the endless spout of reminded sins ever did.

Though the taunts were often negligible with their frequency, he was not immune to his own doubts.

Seeing weakness, the void surges around him once more, and though he may have been curious about the opened door, doubt overcame him. Slowly, with the roar of his past around him, he is pulled gradually back into the depths, his attempt abandoned.

But yet, he did not fall back into the slumber. No, he lay awake in the sea he could not leave. Could he ever leave this abyss? And, if he did, could he ever say he would be recognized? What if he was shunned, cast away for his unpredicted abandonment? Could he say he would be accepted?

Much time had passed since he had sealed. Who remained? Questions and doubts consumed him, now, and he soon nearly forgot about that opened entrance. For now, he did not want to leave, as much as he despised these depths. For now, he pondered the world beyond this miserable cage he had locked himself in.

What lied beyond this place, now? What opened this door? And most importantly...

What remained of his dear Hallownest?


	3. Temptations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pale King tries to fight his curiousity. But we all know you can't REALLY fight yourself... at least not for long.

Wrapped in his past and the void as if it were a heavy blanket riddled with holes, he thought, remembered, losing himself in them.

How strange, how his mind refused to truly forget the crack leading back to the world beyond. He didn't want to imagine the worst, but his mind did not care.

Worst scenario, Hallownest was gone, destroyed.

Best scenario, it was the same as when he left it.

Yet, his doubts and fears, ever-present, continue to keep him there, in the heavy, unchanging darkness.

Still, he found his curiosity growing stronger. Attempting to lure him back to the crack. Dare he try?

Did he dare to let his curiosity grab a hold of him and risk the chance?

He hesitated a second time, hand pausing in its motion, grabbing at nothing.

No. His hand lowered, once again resting at his side.

He didn't want to risk it. He couldn't. But, the other side, who he was, was winning the fight, filling him with the desire to return to that which he called home.

His Hallownest.

He looked to where the idol of himself sat before the ravenous shadows had consumed it. He sighs, settling for the darkness that had been his cage-his prison-letting his mind wander to old friends he had made, to his dear root.

Would they recognize him? Or not?

Would the spark for him had returned to her heart?

He supposed he may never learn the answer. It was too risky, and he refused to allow the void to possibly worsen the condition of his kingdom.

He loved his Hallownest more than his freedom. So he ignored the biting curiosity.

For as long as he could, he bit down on it, refusing it and casting it into the depths that filled his mind.

........

The crack beckoned him, tempting him to just take another peek.

The whispers laughed at him. They mocked him, insulted him.

How he would never be free. How he would stay there for the remainder of his existence.

he bowed his head as the crushing weight of his crimes rest on him. How could he have done any better?

There was no other direction he could have taken that would have provided a worthwhile or desirable outcome, no matter how far his Foresight went. There had only been one clear path.

And it had only led to this moment. Although, being a part of the crushing darkness that holds him was not a part of it.

A choice he made without a second thought.

Yet, it pained him to wish he hadn't done it.

It had been better when he slept through the torment. To not be tempted by the crack in the door.

He closes his eyes with a heavy sigh, yet, it still plagued him. It silently begged and pleaded for him to give in.

Finally, it won. He once again found himself racing upwards, towards that infuriating crack. Despite all of his burning curiosity, he still hesitated.

From fear? Worry? Both? He was sure it was a mixture of the two. his hands shook as he reached for the landing leading to the exit of the abyss. he pulled them back, trying to quell the quaking with deep breaths, forcing himself to imagine his heart slowing and calming.

after a time, it proved fruitful as the tremble slowed to nothing. now he would have to work on the other problem; His size.

In no way would he fit as he was, he knew that from the moment he had seen the crack. So he forced himself and the crushing darkness to change in size. To return to a familiar shape and size.

Opening his many eyes, he stares at the crack, then approached. It was finally time.

Finally, it was time to return to his kingdom. His home.

"I'm coming home... My dear bugs... My Great Knights... My root..." He thought, taking the few small steps toward then out of the abyss, back into Hallownest.

Back to her-

His beloved root.


End file.
